Welcome to The Grape Vine Events blog! We are Manchester based wedding and event planners looking forward to making your next event a great success.
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This blog was created to share idea's on all types of events, weddings and children's parties. Whether you are looking for theme idea's, advice or something a bit different, we hope you find what you are looking for and wish you every success for your next event.

Saturday, 28 January 2012

Planning a wedding will undoubtedly be one of
the most stressful times in your life. The list of things to do is endless and
often you just don’t know where to start! Working full time whilst balancing
busy social lives, plus having to plan a wedding is hard work. You may find
that all of your evenings and weekends are taken up with planning the wedding,
when you suddenly start to feel overwhelmed!

Well, it’s time to stop panicking and take
control! Yes, there is a lot of work to do, but you will not be able to plan
everything at once. Therefore, I have created a timeline which includes every
last, little item that you need to consider to help you from start to finish
and even after the wedding.

So take a deep breath and breath… follow my plan
and start to gain control again over your wedding plans.

12
– 18 MONTHS BEFORE

Announce
your engagement to family and close friends

Decide
on a wedding date

Go
shopping for engagement rings with your fiancé

Start
a wedding file

Ask
around your married friends for referrals of vendors who they have had good
experiences with

Decide
on the style, formal or informal

Choose
the theme

Set
your wedding budget and stick to it!

Discuss
expenses and who is going to pay for what?

Put
an announcement in the local paper

Hire
a wedding planner

Select
a ceremony location

Select
a reception location

Start
shopping for your wedding gown

Select
a cake designer

Throw
your engagement party

8
– 10 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING

Select
your wedding party

Decide
on guest list. Consult with both families

Collect
names, addresses and email addresses for invites

Start
interviewing wedding officiants

Hire
a caterer if the catering is not supplied by the venue

Hire
a photographer

Hire
a videographer

Hire
a band or DJ

Decide
on bridesmaid dresses

Sign
up for a gift registry

Book
the cars for your bridal party

Hire
a chair cover and decoration company

Send
out save the date cards

Set
up a wedding website to keep friends up to date with the wedding plans

Have
someone check the reception site as early as possible to fix any possible
problems

Dress
for the wedding

Have
photos taken with the family

Most
importantly have fun if everything doesn’t go exactly to plan, don’t worry and
enjoy the day. Your guests probably won’t even notice

AFTER THE HONEYMOON

Have
your gown preserved

Write
thank-you notes

Change
your name

Arrange to have your flowers freeze dried or
pressed

I hope you find this timeline helpful. Each
month set yourself tasks just like I have here, then break them down into
monthly categories, so that you can focus on one task at a time so planning
your wedding can become more manageable. Happy planning!

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Getting engaged is such a magical and exciting time in
anyone’s life, having finally found that special someone to spend the rest of
your life with to share those special moments in your life and who will love you
unconditionally forever. What a beautiful feeling. When your partner got down
on one knee and professed how much they loved you, must have been a moment to
cherish; one which you will look back on for the rest of your life. Whether the
proposal was performed in front of family and friends, at the top of the Eiffel
Tower, on a beautiful sunny afternoon overlooking the lake, it will be a day
both of you will never forget.

Then you have the excitement of telling family and friends…
then let the celebrations begin! You show off the ring to everyone and tell the
story of how your partner proposed to anyone who will listen.

REALIZATION

Then reality sinks in! You have an entire wedding to plan,
and that in itself is an enormous task. At first it was fun flipping through
the bridal magazines which you bought for yourself, but now you look through
them feeling anxious with all the planning you have in front of you. It seems
like the to do list is growing by the minute with choosing venue’s, deciding on
a theme, how many guests to invite? What is the cake going to look like? What
flowers should you choose? Should we have a band or a DJ? The list goes on and
on and before you know it you are starting to freak out, and dreading the
thought of planning your dream wedding.

So before you run to the hills, here are some helpful tips:

BUDGET AND GUEST LISTS:

There are several factors you need to consider when planning
your wedding. The first thing you need to do to draw up your guests list is,
because in many cases this can determine how large your budget needs to be or
for how many people it needs to cover. The average wedding now costs around £15,500.
What you need to determine is what you can afford to spend. Do you have any
savings? If not, then you may need to look at other ways of financing your big
day.

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO FINANCE YOUR WEDDING?

In the olden days, as soon as the happy couple announced
their engagement Mum and Dad would dig out their cheque book and pay for the
whole wedding. The celebration would be held at a grand location with a large
guest list and would typically cost a small fortune. Usually the parents of the
engaged couple would have started saving from when they were children. But those
days are gone, leaving the financing of your dream day to largely fall on you.

There are several options you need to consider, such as:

Do either of your parents have a special wedding fund? If so,
now would be the time for you and your fiancé to sit down with them and talk
about the financials. It may be that as it is their money, they may already
have some idea’s in mind for what type of celebration they want to throw. You
might want an intimate wedding with family and close friends, but your parents
may want to throw you a lavish wedding for 300 people. After all they are
paying for it, so you may need to be prepared for this. Though, if you are ok
with this then if I were you I would happily thank them and go with the flow. Any
idea’s, theme’s or colour scheme’s you have in mind, sit down with mum or
mother-in-law-to-be and let her know what is important to you. Even though they
are paying for it, it is your wedding too.

However for their children’s weddings, parents do like to
contribute, so if they do not have some kind of wedding fund set up for you,
ask them if they are willing to contribute something such as paying for the
reception or the wedding dress or the grooms suit.

Do you have any savings? If not, then maybe consider setting
the wedding at least 18 months to 2 years away. This way, if are disciplined
and save as much as you can every month, forgoing on those nights out and
lunches with friends, in the end, having your beautiful wedding will be well
worth it.

Also, if there is any overtime at your work place, then take
it. Weddings are expensive and any extra money will be well worth the extra
hours. However, savings will definitely help you to plan your dream wedding,
and make life easier it is unlikely you will be able to save 10,000 or 20,000 in
1-2 years for you big day.

Nowadays mainly the cost of the wedding does fall heavily on
the bride and grooms shoulders so you have to look at borrowing the money, such
as through a bank loan, or credit cards.

With a bank loan you will pay interest which will be added
on top of the amount you borrow. The longer the term of the loan, the more
interest you will pay. However the quicker you pay the loan back, the less
interest you pay.

Credit cards can charge a very high interest rate. However
there are cards out there that offer 0% on purchases. If you shop around you
could find yourself a great deal. For example 0% of purchases for 18 months. If
you took out a card with a large limit, this could fund your wedding and as
long as you pay off the credit card before the 0% period ends, you will not pay
any interest, otherwise once the offer ends, you may have to pay a high amount
of interest each month.

SPEND YOUR WEDDING FUNDS WISELY

Once you have the funds available to pay for your dream day
and after determining the guest list, you then need to decide on list of “must
haves.” These are items or elements of your wedding which are the most
important to you and the groom. For instance, the brides top 3 “must haves”
could be her wedding dress, the reception venue and the photography. The grooms
must haves may be his stag do, the cake and the wedding cars. Therefore, you
will have to allocate the budget to accommodate these items.

Remember to be realistic if you are on a budget. Don’t spend
more that you can afford or you will put yourselves into debt and subsequently
be paying off your wedding for many years.

CREATE A WEDDING TIME LINE AND STICK TO IT!

Now it’s time to get to work. You need to gather idea’s for
you big day. Do you want a formal or informal celebration? Are you going to
invite everyone you have ever known, or will it be small and intimate? What
colour scheme or theme will you opt for? Who will the bridesmaids and groomsman
be? Do you want a winter themed wedding or a colourful summer wedding?

There is so much to think about! It is enough for anyone to
become panicky and start to regret getting engaged; therefore you need a timeline
to stick to. One of the first things you need to look at is choosing a wedding
venue as depending on the time of year, the most popular venue’s will book up
at least a year in advance, and so do good photographers and catering
companies.

Monday, 16 January 2012

Baby showers in the US have been around for decades. We see
them all the time in many American made films or soaps and are always attended by
the mother, close female relatives and friends of the mum-to-be. However,
after many years it seems as though us English have caught onto the trend and they are now taking off over
here. Baby showers are a lovely idea. Throwing a small party for the expectant
mother, usually attended by mainly female guests, to celebrate the up and
coming birth of her baby is a great way to celebrate, and also to let Mum know
that she has so much support behind her.

Possible shower room idea

WHEN AND WHERE?

The best time to throw a baby shower is in the last two
months to 6 weeks of the mother’s pregnancy, however be sure not to have the
shower too close, just in case she goes into early labor. This gives Mum and Dad
a little bit of time to still purchase any items they haven’t received yet at
the party.

You also need to consider your budget when planning where the shower should be held, therefore you need to know numbers. If your
budget is small try asking around family and friends of expectant mum-to-be and
see if any would offer their home for the party. If not, there are church
halls, function rooms and halls for a very reasonable price. Or for those with
a larger budget you could hold it in a restaurant, bar, county club, spa or
hotel.

Cupcakes by Cake HQwww.cakehq.co.uk

WHO ORGANIZES A BABY SHOWER?

A close family friend or family member should do the
organizing, as it would be unfair for the pregnant mother to be put under
pressure if she is not feeling up to it and then have to clean up after everyone
afterwards would not be enjoyable for her.

If she likes surprises, maybe you could throw her a surprise
baby shower. That way, everything is already set up and organized before she
arrives and the expectant mum doesn’t have to worry about a thing. Though make
sure you invite the right people. Also surprise showers are seen as a nice gesture
for expectant mothers on their second (or more!) pregnancy.

However, if no one can help to organize the party due to
other commitments, you should consider hiring a professional event planner. We
have the knowledge, experience and creativity to make your baby shower a great
success leaving mum, family and friends to enjoy the party.

Centerpiece idea's for your shower

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU SPEND?

This all depends on who many people you are inviting or the
size of your budget. The best method of keeping costs low is to ask guests to contribute.
There are several items that you need to consider when organizing the shower
such as:

We all want to have a little fun, and what better way to
make Mum to be smile than with a few games? Such as:

Pin The Nappy On The Baby – Just like ‘pin the tail on the
donkey’ using a photo of a baby instead.

Measure Mums Tum – Measure Mum to be’s tummy all the way
around. The winner is the guest who
guesses the closest.

Guess The Sex Of The Baby – A great opportunity to reveal
the sex of your baby at the shower by writing down on a piece of paper whether
it is a boy or a girl and revealing the sex (if you want to) to the winner, or
winners!

Guest The Baby Pictures – Have everyone who attends the shower bring a baby photo of themselves. The guests have to try and figure
out who is who. One game that is sure to get everyone laughing.

Putting On The Nappy Game – Have guests bring a doll from
home and time each other to see who can put a nappy on the doll in the quickest time.

Baby Shower balloons great for any shower

THEMES

There are several theme’s you can choose, from traditional
to the more modern, here are just a few:

·It’s a boy/girl with everything decorated blue
for a boy and pink for a gir

·Pastel colours such as yellow, pink, green,
lilac and baby blue. These are very natural and would work well as any shower.

·Base the theme on your childhood favourite books
such as The Hungry Caterpiller,

·Mad Hatters Tea Party shower is a more adult theme,
as you can hold an afternoon tea party and get everyone to dress up in silly hats for
fun to take Mum’s mind off the birth

Baby Shower garland

WHAT GIFTS SHOULD YOU BUY?

The general rule is that you buy gifts that will make life a
little easier for mum to be or the expectant parents. Most guests tent to buy
baby clothes, bottle, toys, nappies, bibs, etc as this will help greatly when
the baby is born.

However, if money is tight, why not ask guests to bring
along items that they no longer require if their children have grown up or out
of baby items such as cloths, toys, prams, cots, etc.

Or how about a baby shower Gift Registry? All you have to do is pick the gifts you want and your guests can buy it for you. Simple!

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Disney’s Alice in Wonderland was one of my absolute favourite films growing up. I was amazed by the weird and wonderful world down the rabbit hole
such as the talking flowers and the cards painting the roses red. More
recently there was the more adult vision of the film released in 2009 with Johnny
Depp, which seems to have made the film very popular again, resulting in many Alice
inspired party and wedding theme’s for adults and children.

MANY
DIFFERENT THEMES

Whether you
want an unusual wedding or party theme, intimate tea party with some friends, or
simply a big Alice in Wonderland fan, the possibilities are endless. As there
are so many different and memorable elements to the story, you could choose to
combine them all and have a crazy looking party, which your guests will
never forget. Or simply draw on one or maybe just a few
elements if you do not want anything too full on.

For Example:

·Mad Hatters Tea Party Theme

·Croquet with the Queen Theme

If you
choose the Mad Hatters Tea Party theme for example, you can decorate the tables
with mismatching teacups and saucers, teapots, cake stands and plates of various
styles, mismatching table cloths and chairs in different colours. The food
would have an afternoon tea feel with finger sandwiches, mini cakes, cup cakes,
scones, jam and cream. Ask your Grandma or older relatives if you could borrow
some of their tea sets, cups and saucers, as they are the type to have something you can use which has been shoved to the back of the cupboard or gathering dust, but would look very elegant and vintage on
your table display.

Croquet with
the Queen would have an outdoor feel, Topiary three’s with red roses attached
standing plastic flamingos (www.partypacks.co.uk
£1.56 each, buy more than 10 price drops to £1.40), large cards on
display, balloons shaped as club, diamond, spade and jack (www.partypacks.co.uk £4.14 each, buy more
than 10 price drops to £3.72), and heart shaped table runners (www.partypacks.co.uk £2.94
each, buy more than 10 price drops to £2.64), to represent the queen
of hearts, with a red and black theme.

Or by
sticking to one theme you can create something equally as Alice, such as a
fancy dress party where everyone dresses up as characters from the film. Check
out these great masks,

ALICE IN WONDERLAND MASKS

(www.etsy.co.uk) Then you only need to add a few decorations to your venue,
as everyone will be dressed up already which will add to the atmosphere. Then
there are the crazy looking woods with talking flowers, the Cheshire cat and the smoking Caterpillar,

TOADSTOOLS PICKED UP FROM THE MANCHESTER CHRISTMAS MARKETS

ect, you could have lots of tree’s and greenery, and many flowers and toadstools on display,
and oversized butterflies. Or having eat me, read me and drink me on various
food and drinking bottles, or a Queen of Hearts and card theme, drawing on the
different suits such as jack, shade, queen and king.

Quite simply
in the world of Alice in Wonderland, the more weird and wonderful the better,
and I say anything goes!

IDEA’S FOR
YOUR BASH!

For those
with a bigger budget and more space, the possibilities are endless. If you are
having a large event, each table could be named after a certain part of the
story such as ‘The Cheshire Cat Table’ or the ‘Queen of Hearts Table’ and the
top table or guest of honor table could named as ‘The Mad Hatters Table.’ There
are many ways to have a wow factor do, such as hiring Alice in Wonderland props,
(www.eventprophire.com)
to really wow your guests.

You can
really go to town with a larger budget, and even dedicate each corner of the
room in a different part of the film, therefore your guests will be constantly
entertained. However for a very large event and budget, to make sure your event
goes off without a hitch, you will need to hire an event planner.

ALICE BUNTING I MADE MYSELF

If you are
on a small budget don’t despair! There are so many cheaper alternatives to make
your event look fantastic. Follow this link for tutorials on how to create some Alice decorations:

For cost effective decorations make your own bunting
like I have. It is so easy! Firstly I scanned in photos from the original Alice
in Wonderland book by Lewis Carroll, created a bunting shaped template and
cropped the image in Photoshop. Then I printed the bunting, cut them out and hung
them over some string. They look very effective. If you have a colour theme in
mind, simply print the bunting templates onto coloured paper.

Also using
the Alice photo’s from the book, print off your favourite images, and place
them in different shaped and size frames and place them on tables. Check out charity
shops for vintage crockery, teapots, teacups, and saucers for budget tea sets,
for any items you can use (or raid Grandma’s cupboards) for your vintage tea
party, wedding or event. These can be displayed as centerpieces on the tables, maybe
using some of the teapots to display table numbers.

DECORATIONS

MAD HATTERS HAT

To tie the
theme together, there are several elements you can include from the story. Such
as:

A black and
white dance floor. There are
many places in and around Manchester were can hire a black and white checkered dance floor (http://event1.rtrk.co.uk).

If you are
on a budget, you can buy a large black and white chess board can possibly
double up as a dance floor. Or you can buy the large chess piece from £250.00

Plastic
flamingos.

Rose petals or red roses

Bottles placed on the tables with tags around
the neck of the bottle saying, ‘Drink Me’.

If you have printed material on the tables for
guests to read, whether it’s a corporate function, or a program of the evening
events, with ‘Read Me’ printed on the front of the booklet written in old
fashioned letters, and printed on brown card, tied with string. Old fashioned
labels can be bought from (www.etsy.co.uk)

Monday, 2 January 2012

How many many of us each year in January vow to lose
weight? Yet within a few days, we all crumble at the first sight of a chocolate
bar. This could be from a lack of motivation or from not having a strong
support system, or having a clearly defined goal. Well, for those of us, who are
getting married this year (or like myself, renewing my vows to my amazing
husband!), it is time to get serious. With a new year comes a new start, and a
new found motivation – hopefully.

If you are serious
about shifting those love handles, you need to face this head on. Write your
goals down. This shows you are serious and committed. However, for you it might
not be about losing weight, but simply want to tone up. Record your weight or measurements
or both to track your progress, this way you will know that your hard work is
paying off, even though you might not necessarily see the results straight away.
Carry a photo around in your hand bag of a picture of your dream wedding dress,
and how amazing you would will feel wearing that designer dress, and looking
back on your photos in years to come at how stunning you look, and feeling
proud looking at the beautiful women in the photo’s staring back at you.

Now I am not a doctor, fitness instructor/coach, or a nutritionist, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out how to lose weight, does
it? It’s simple, just move a little more and eat a little less. Of course we need
to eat the right foods though, after all we don’t want to be fainting as we’re walking
up the aisle! We should all take a vow now to lose weight the healthy way, and
not the easy (but potential dangerous) way. Pills and silly faddy diets are for
the weak, or those looking for a quick fix such as meal replacements, the cabbage
soup diet, Atkins. Yuk! No thanks! I’ll do it the healthy way, thanks! You
might stick to them for a few days or weeks, and eventually will fall off the
wagon and gain all of your weight back and more, leaving you equally frustrated
and even further behind you goal.

MOVE YOUR
BODY

If you hate
exercise, my theory is that you haven’t tried every exercise or program out
there to hate all forms of exercise. Start off by trying something new, and if
you don’t like that, then move on to something else. For example, try a Pilates
class, if that’s not for you, maybe try spinning, or even a dancing class. From
experience, I swear by Zumba. It doesn’t matter what level you are at, just
follow your instructors moves. The great thing about attending a Zumba class is
how much fun they are and the great atmosphere. There are many classes around
Manchester which are at many different levels. However check out this list, I
am sure will find something that is for you:

Aerobics

Aqua
Aerobics

Badminton

Basketball

Body
Conditioning

Boxing

Climbing

Cycling

Cricket

Disco
Dancing

Football

Hockey

Horse Riding

Ice Skating

Jogging

Kick Boxing

Line Dancing

Netball

Pilates

Power
Walking

Rollerblading

Running

Salsa

Skiing

Skipping

Spinning

Squash

Step

Swimming

Tennis

Walking

Weight
Training

Yoga

Zumba

DON’T LEAVE
IT TO THE LAST MINUTE!

Get started
today! Having an impending wedding looming is just the pressure you might need
to spur you on. This in one of those many tasks you may have on your ever
expanding to do list that needs to be started as early as possible. So start
today!

THE BENEFITS

The many
benefits of losing weight and getting healthy is that with all of the extra
tasks you have to manage and the extra stress, exercising can give you extra
energy and not to mention the extra health benefits and help to combat stress.
No matter how stressful planning a wedding might be, running on the treadmill
or attending a Zumba class for an hour, can help you to de stress you and leave
you feeling more calmer and in control.

JANUARY
SALES

It is not
always about discounted designer clothes, shoes, bags or DVDs, the wedding
industry offers many discounts as well, such as getting married in winter
months (check out my blog entry ‘Winter Weddings’ for more information on
saving money by getting married in the cooler months). However, in January you
can find many weight loss related products for sale. I have already seen a few
Groupon/Living Social, ect deals offering several classes or gym visits at
higher end gyms for a fraction of the price, or other types of deals offering
cut price membership deals already, and it’s just turned 2012.

INCLUDE
FITNESS IN YOUR WEDDING BUDGET

Depending on
how large your wedding budget is, you should plan to allocate some of your
budget to help you achieve your new fit and toned body. This could include gym
memberships, training sessions or home gym equipment. At the very least book a onetime
consultation with a personal trainer to help kick start your work out regime
and weight loss.

If you can
afford a personal trainer, you can’t go wrong. Especially if you meet with them
weekly, more than likely you should start seeing results a lot quicker than if
you were to go at it alone.

REWARDING
YOUR HARD WORK

We all know
what the ultimate reward is – fitting into your beautiful wedding gown – but in
order to stay motivated and stay on track, we need to reward ourselves and our
hard work along the way. Every time you drop a dress size, but yourself a new outfit,
or something you have really wanted. This will inspire you to work hard. Do not
by your reward until you have achieved your small goal first or it defeats the
object. Unless it is a dress a size smaller.

Though
remember, it is not just about getting fit for your wedding, it is about
getting fit for life!